The invention is related to the field of data storage systems.
Data storage systems of a type referred to as “content addressed storage” or CAS are known. A CAS storage system may be used for bulk storage of a large number of files or similar data objects that may be relatively fixed, i.e., not subject to frequent (or any) change. One aspect of CAS storage is so-called content addressing, which refers to the association of each stored data object with a unique identifier that is generally calculated from the contents of the data object, for example by a hash function applied to the entire contents of a data file. A client of a CAS storage system can submit files for storage without any knowledge of how the storage system actually stores them. The CAS storage calculates the content address (CA) of each data object and stores it in association with the data object, as well as returning it to the client. When the client wishes to read the data object, it provides the CA to the CAS system, which then performs an associative lookup to retrieve the associated data object and return it to the client.